The September 20th grand opening of Jekyll Island’s Great Dunes Park is an event well worth celebration by Jekyll’s friends. As many of you may recall, hundreds of condos and timeshares were initially planned for the site where the new park now sits. After more than a year of intense public protest over the proposed commercialization of a key part of Jekyll’s main public beach, and with the possibility of legal action for violation of Georgia’s Shore Protection Act looming on the horizon, the Jekyll Island Authority’s board of directors decided to scale back the grandiose plans for a 63-acre oceanfront town center. The smaller version of the town center plan, which was released in October of 2008 and will be implemented over the next two years, allowed for the creation of Great Dunes Park.

The next time you visit Jekyll Island, be sure to go to beautiful Great Dunes Park. When you’re there, take a few minutes to reflect on how the park came to be. Envision it as a monument to what can happen when concerned citizens come together to protect and preserve public land, and give yourself a pat on the back if you were part of the effort that helped make the park possible.